India’s Ministry of Coal is urging large local steel producers to reduce imports of coking coal by 5-10 percent through greater investments in improving the quality of domestic coal, a ministry official said on Tuesday, February 16.
The official said that the ministry has been holding talks with large domestic steel companies like Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), Tata Steel and JSW Limited, pushing them toward investing in quality upgrade of domestic coal and setting up washing and beneficiations plants, aiming to reduce current coking coal imports of 45 million mt per year by at least 5-10 percent. The official said that reduction of imports even at the lower end of the percentage range would result in savings of around $400 million a year.
The Indian government for its part is also holding bilateral talks with the governments of Poland and Australia to source technology for quality upgrades of medium grade coal to coking coal and local steel companies are asked to join the efforts for follow-up action in absorption of technology and subsequent investments, the official said.